Category Archives: Periodic table update

Chemistry is the subject related to the chemical composition of matters. Elements have their various physical (atomic weight, mass weight, electronic configuration) and chemical (acidity and basicity) properties. Chemistry discusses the fundamental properties of the matter from strictly a scientific chemical standpoint in a more detailed way.

The Periodic Table is the table in which the chemical elements are arranged in the order according to their fundamental chemical properties. Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev had first published the Periodic Table in 1869, and it had experienced phenomenal and complete acceptance in the scientific community and amongst the scientists because of its accuracy, applicability and usefulness.

Usually, within the configuration of the Periodic Table, all the elements, natural and synthetic, are arranged in the horizontal order according to their atomic numbers, electronic configuration, and in the vertical order, they are arranged according to their chemical properties. The rows of the periodic table are named after periods, and the columns are designated as the groups. The non-metallic substances are arranged within the periodic table differently than that of the metallic substances. The non-metallic substances are presented on the left side of the Periodic Table. The metallic substances are then made to occupy the right side of the Periodic Table Six different groups are determined among all the substances which are presented in the periodic table and are disseminated among these six groups with the names provided to each according to the ascending order of numerics (as group I to group VI) with the seventh and the eighth group having been designated by the properties of the elements which are included in those two groups.

For instance, the seventh group consists of the Halogens and the eight group being consisted of noble gases which are completely inert and non-reactive in nature. Thus, these two groups are named according to their the substances which are made to be included in them. This speciality of these two particular groups makes them stand apart from the remaining six groups of the Periodic Table.

The Periodic table is tough to be memorised due to its long size expansive and exhaustive number of elements involved and the volume of substances associated with it. Along with this, the Periodic Table is quantified with an enormous and extensive number of molecules. Thus it seems a bit difficult for a diverse number of students to memorise it most efficiently so that the information from this Periodic Table could be recalled at any point in time. This often provides an intractable problem for the students.

Fortunately, the Periodic Table becomes the source of the solution to this problem altogether. It acts as a helper for the chemistry students and chemical engineering aspirants, to learn the different sections of the subject of Chemistry in an orderly fashion. However, sometimes the Periodic table itself becomes an impediment and a burden to the learners.

Therefore, there are some basic recapitulation methods which a are utilised for the periodic table which is represented in the following, which might be helpful for the students:

A) At the time of learning the intricacies of the Periodic Table, you must make it the quintessential guideline for your life, until and unless you do not become familiar enough with the subject altogether. As an essential step for this, you have to prepare a printout of the entire Periodic Table by yourself. During the available free time of yours, you have to have a look at this printout of yours regarding the Periodic Table very carefully. One crucial element that you have to remind yourself is that there is no point in trying to memorise it or mug it up completely since it is next to impossible to the students with average or below than average memory. Only students with photographic or unusually strong memory and power of recollection would be able to memorise and recollect the information. Rather on you can take it as an achievement if you manage to remember some crucial parts of the entire Periodic Table. Any work made with an ambitious perspective is easy to pursue, and the chances of becoming successful are also reasonably higher than any other endeavour regarding the effort and the time invested in it.

B) Next, You need to write the Periodic Table every day by yourself until you can write it without a single glance at the printed section of the Table. If you are a continuous and persistent learner, you must have the tenacity, the persivierance and the diligence to make an ongoing effort continue consistently until and unless you manage to obtain your desired success. Writing increases the task of repetition of a particular subject which is helpful for memorising large quantities of information over a longer time. You must draw your conclusions from your own previous experiences. You could remember the time when you have learnt the alphabets; you had to undertake countless efforts which must have helped you to learn the letters in an automatized manner.

C) Next, you must break the entire Periodic Table down into the smaller sections that you can easily memorise with the least of efforts involved to do the same. For the sake of your improvement, you can add colour to such sub segments which could make the entire topic easier to preserve in the memory more accurately. This approach should be made in an ascending manner in consideration with the subject complexity. For example, at first, you can consider the rows and columns and there after the atomic numbers could be regarded as followed by the atomic numbers of the involved substances and only then should follow the considerations about the electronic configuration.

D) You can zap the Periodic Table during the intervals of your studies or during your free hours… Suppose, you are travelling at any transport for a longer time interval and getting bored off it , you can quiz yourself about the Periodic Table continuously and about the location and position of the contents of it regarding the metallic and non-metallic substances within the table then you could find yourself a much efficient process to master the process of learning the Periodic Table regarding this matter.

E) Next, you must refer to mnemonic devices, which is the best approach to make an association of the elements with each other. Suppose, you can formulate a string of molecules. In this technique, you have to ignore completely the easily memorizable elements altogether. Rather than you must use the tough ones to be memorised.

F) After this, you can draw pictures of each element, and at this time you have to consider that the element, of the image of which you are drawing, must be the part of your known and recognised elements. By this means you can quickly memorise them.

Above mentioned techniques are some basic examples of the undertaking of the process of ‘learning the Periodic Table’. However, these are not the least of the examples; you also can make your strategies to master the Periodic Table and can also modify them further. Whatever plans you may prepare, at the end of the day you must make sure that you have become successful in your venture.

A Periodic table which is considered to be the list of all elements with their atomic numbers and atomic weights has a reason to be jubilant. The 7th row of the table is complete. It was incomplete till recently, although the existence of the elements to fill the vacant places were predicted much before. The elements, which have been added to the designated positions in the 7th row of the table, are yet to get their formal names. But those are merely process and we will soon have a periodic table, a complete one, with the formal names of the new discoveries.

At present, the new elements are occupying gracefully 113th, 115th, 117th and 118th positions amongst their counterparts. The positions, that is 113, 115, 117 and 118 are naturally the atomic numbers of the elements, that is the number of protons present in nuclei of the elements or the number of electrons that are circling round the nuclei of the atoms of the elements. Presently these new super-heavy and very unstable elements are known as ununtrium (Uut, atomic number 113), ununpentium (Uup, atomic number 115), ununpentium (Uus, atomic number 117) and ununoctium (Uuo, atomic number 118). The elements being heavier than Uranium 92 (which is the heaviest element to exist naturally) are extremely unstable and cannot exist naturally.

IUPAC (The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) is the Global body which, undertakes the governance of the nomenclatures as well as measurement in Chemistry, has recognised the scientists of the RIKEN Institute of Wako, Japan, as the discoverer of the element Uut, 113. Whereas, IUPAC has awarded the credit of discovering the element Uut (118) to the teams from US and Russia, working in joint collaboration and belonging to the Joint Institute for Nuclear research in Dubna and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory California in the US. The same team has been credited with the discovery of the other two elements with atomic numbers 115 and 117 but with collaboration of another institute Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Being very new to the periodic table family, the new elements are yet to be observed to reveal their entire chemical properties. However the following are the properties which have been identified till date:
UNUNTRIUM
Atomic Number: 113
Group Number: 13
Period: 7
Electronic Configuration: [Rn]5f146d107s27p1
UNUNPENTIUM
Atomic Number: 115
Group Number: 15
Period: 7
Electronic Configuration: [Rn] 5f146d107s27p3
UNUNSEPTIUM
Atomic Number: 117
Group Number: 17
Period: 7
Electronic Configuration: [Rn]5f146d107s27p5
UNUNOCTIUM
Atomic Number: 118
Group Number: 18
Period: 7
Electronic Configuration: [Rn]5f146d107s27p6